Rheological properties of self-compacting concrete paste containing chemical admixtures

Self-compacting concrete (SCC) was used for the filling layer of CRTSIII plate ballastless track, which needs excellent workability. The rheological properties of SCC cement paste containing chemical admixtures (CA) such as polycarboxylate-based superplasticizer (PCE), air-entraining agent (AE) and defoamer (DF) were investigated using a Brookfield R/S SST2000 soft solid tester with a vane geometry spindle. The cementitious materials were designed as one, two and, three components systems by addition of ordinary portland cement (OPC) with these chemical admixtures. The rheological properties of one-component system (PCE paste) were improved with increasing the content of PCE. For two components systems of PCE-AE and PCE-DF, yield stress and plastic viscosity reduced firstly and increased afterward with the increasing of AE content. And the plastic viscosity reached the optimum when the content of AE is 0.004wt%. In general, the trend of yield stress and plastic viscosity decreased with the increasing of the DF content. For three components systems, PCE-AE-DF systems, the rheological properties were improved compared with the sample with AE or DF, which attributed to mixes of the active components mentioned above (CA) which could have a synergetic effect.